Silence Answers
by mistlove
Summary: Prequel to She's Waiting for Me. Wally reaches out to Cassandra when he stays at the Clocktower with Babs. Today, she reaches back.


**Title:** Silence Answers  
**Summary:** Prequel to _She's Waiting for Me_. Wally reaches out to Cassandra when he stays at the Clocktower with Babs. Today, she reaches back.  
**Author:** mistlove  
**Copyrights:** Plot is mine. Everything else belongs to DC Comics.  
**A/N:**This was gonna be a short drabble. But then, I realllllly wanted to write more Cassandra even though I'm not good at her.

* * *

Wally slows to a stop once he gets to the center of the Clocktower, sighing as he tugs off his cowl.

"Hey Cass," he greets.

Cassandra nods her head at him from where she stands next to Barbara's console. Cassandra Cain is strange and silent, only ever acknowledging his presence with a nod. Barbara tells him that Cassandra is still learning how to talk, but he often talks to her even if she doesn't reply. She doesn't seem to mind his attention, so he keeps it up.

He glances over at her as he examines the wound on his arm. She's dressed in her Batgirl outfit save for the cowl.

"You're all gussied up. Getting ready for night patrol?"

She nods before approaching him slowly. She points to his arm and looks up at him with a question in her eyes.

"Oh this? It's nothing," he laughs lightly, dropping his arm back to his side. "Small bomb went off in a building today and I had to go run in and evacuate everyone. Just a red badge of courage, no worries."

Cassandra shakes her head at him disapprovingly, pointing to his neck and then his ankle. He had almost forgotten that Cassandra was capable of reading body language. She could tell he was injured in other places.

"It's... It's fine, Cass," Wally insists hurriedly. "Don't tell Babs. She's been fussing over me all day and I'm fine honestly."

"I'm sure you are," a sardonic voice quips from behind him. "What were you thinking, rushing into that crumbling building blind?" Barbara demands when he turns around to look at her. Her blue eyes are sharp and dangerous. She wheels past him angrily towards her Oracle console.

He sighs, running a hand through his hair absently. He looks to Cassandra for help but she only shrugs and dashes out of the room, tugging her cowl on along the way.

Great.

"I told you," Wally starts calmly. "I figured I could get out of there in time."  
"Fastest man in the world...," Barbara scoffs. She tugs her glasses off, kneading her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. "Don't race against gravity, Wally. Things don't always work out well."

"Well, what did you _want_me to do, Babs? Leave those civilians in there?" He slaps his injured arm lightly, biting his lip to keep from cringing noticeably. "I'm worse for the wear, sure, but I saved a lot of people."

"This isn't just about the civilians and your duty as a hero!" Barbara turns away from him, back to her screens. "You and Bruce are the same. You don't ever think about the people who are waiting for you back at home."

He wants to answer and say he cares plenty about her but nothing comes out.

"Come over here." Her voice is cold. "I'll look at your wounds."

He does so obediently like a scolded child and spends the night being tended to in silence.

He wakes up in the morning to find Barbara's side of the bed empty. He dashes out to the console to find her asleep in her wheelchair. Cassandra is standing next to her and looks up when he arrives.

"Good morning, Cass. Don't mind me, just gonna pluck her off to the bed before I take off.

He rushes over to the wheelchair and gingerly picks Barbara up. She shifts a little but doesn't wake. That's unusual for her. She's a light sleeper, perception honed to sense people approaching her, even in sleep. She must be exhausted.

Cassandra shifts into his path, slow and deliberate. "If... you hurt... her," she points to Barbara's sleeping form before continuing, "you answer... to _me." _She turns her gaze to Barbara for a moment before looking back up to him. "You make her... _happy._ But when she is happy... she _worries _more."

He has to pause a moment, surprised she finally said something to him before recovering enough to answer quietly, "I know."

"She yells at you... because she cares." Cassandra brushes her bangs back to reveal a small scar on her forehead. "I almost got... concussion... fighting first metahuman. She let me go because... she thought I was okay. She found out later... yelled at me."

Wally can't help but smile a little. "You sure you're okay now?" He shifts to rub his thumb over the scar and is surprised when she lets him.

Cassandra doesn't like physical contact, he's noticed. Even if he has super speed, she can usually tell when he wants to hug her and promptly avoids him. Barbara insisted that she needed to get used to him first.

Cassandra nods before shifting away. "I trust you. Barbara has been through... a lot. She is a lot happier... when she talks about you."

Before Wally can answer, Cassandra has vanished into the shadows of the Clocktower.

He sighs before grinning.

Well, that's approval from at least one Batfamily member.


End file.
